Halloween

November is here.  Look, I took out my "horn of plenty" yesterday!

Good thing we have plenty of gourds to fill it!  I try to decorate for Thanksgiving before Christmas mania takes over.  We went to Target last night and I was kind of surprised to see no Christmas decorations out yet although there was some merchandise like clothing out.  I don't mind the early Christmas takeover as long as it is in November.  It's a short time period of the year and I love the music and atmosphere.  But I also love the Thanksgiving atmosphere and how the gourds and pumpkins get a bit longer to be seen!  Speaking of gourds...are these not the finest specimen you have ever seen?

This crazy thing is the size of a dinner plate. 

And...the octopus.  I spotted this one growing in the patch this summer and waited excitedly to pick it.  It is not getting tossed until the Christmas tree is up.  

Now, on to Halloween...Calvin is the 4th baby to wear this pumpkin costume in our family and the sixth to wear it because his two cousins wore it before him!  It dates back to 2005.  

And now, a stroll down memory lane...

Milo.

Tessa.

And Ben!  I love this picture.  I have it in a Halloween frame that comes out every year.

We had a fun Halloween this year.  The kids had a few costume wearing events.  Tessa was Rapunzel, Ben repeated his fisherman costume from last year and Milo was supposed to be a police officer (not really his choice since we already had it) but he refused to wear it on Halloween night.

It was kind of chaotic the afternoon before trick or treating and  didn't get any good group photos of them all in costume.  This one is kind of funny though.  I also didn't get a picture of Allan in his pumpkin costume because...big surprise...the kids took it and lost it in the house somewhere.  It still hasn't turned up.  We went walking around trick or treating and it was really fun.  We live in a really small town now so everywhere we went we had people to talk to and it's of course very safe.  Justin handed out candy at home with Calvin.  

I haven't worn a costume for years but Justin and I went to an adult Halloween party last weekend.  It was a last minute decision to go so I threw together this costume:

You are probably thinking...hmmmm...OK what is that?  Well, scroll down:

It is me, recreating one of my senior pictures.  The classic Doc Martens with socks photo which no one thought was weird or bad taste for a photo shoot which ended up costing $600+ dollars.  Don't worry, this was only one of four outfits I wore.  I still have the jacket, warm up shirt with my name on the back and the sandals.  The very ones. Slipping into that shirt was so nostalgic...I felt like I was back in a 95 degree gym again, in front of packed bleachers, sweating because it is not at all breathable.  We usually made our circle out of the locker room and immediately tossed them on the bench.  I was sweaty from playing JV already anyway.

I felt bad about not getting a picture of the kids on Halloween but I did get a cute one the week before when they went with the Sunday School to sing at the local nursing home.

Tessa didn't have her fake braid yet in this one and Calvin isn't wearing the pumpkin but at least Milo is wearing a costume!  

On we go, to the most wonderful time of the year!  I love the food, commercials and festivities.